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Mifare4Mobile Group to develop next generation NFC transport ticketing services

Sarah Clark — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:24:30 +0000

NXP has joined forces with Ericsson, Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, STMicroelectronics, Venyon and Vivotech to form an industry group that aims to develop a new generation of NFC-based transport ticketing services.

NEW GROUP: Members will steer Mifare's move to mobile phones

NXP, Ericsson, Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, STMicroelectronics, Venyon and Vivotech have joined forces to form the Mifare4Mobile Industry Group, with the aim of enabling members to work together to standardise and advance the management of Mifare applications on NFC-enabled devices.

The first version of Mifare4Mobile was announced by NXP in late 2008. It was designed to provide mobile network operators, trusted services managers and service providers with a single interoperable programming interface to remotely provision and manage Mifare Classic-based NFC ticketing services over the air. The current version of the Mifare4Mobile interface specifications has been licensed by more than 200 organisations around the world.

Now, the Mifare4Mobile industry group plans to further develop the specifications to include support for the more sophisticated Mifare DESFire technology and for systems involving multiple Trusted Service Managers. Interface specification licenses will be available free of charge.

"As an increased number of companies begin to develop their own NFC applications to support transactions such as ticketing, there is an increased need for collaboration with other partners in the ecosystem to enable interoperable over-the-air configuration of SIM cards and handsets," says the new group. "The Mifare4Mobile industry group, which includes both hardware partners and trusted service managers, will actively support the global adoption of NFC and the needs of all stakeholders.

"The group will act as a platform to provide future direction, discuss experiences and share best practices to ensure evolution, interoperable development and implementation of the Mifare4Mobile technology," it adds.

Mifare4Mobile comprises a set of APIs which cover:

Wallet and user interface APIs. These are designed to ensure a consistent user experience, provide interoperability with other card formats and render card content on the phone screen in a convenient and flexible way.
Over-the-air and trusted service manager APIs. These are designed to allow OTA providers to access Mifare resources on any secure element in a consistent way and to ensure a uniform approach to Mifare application life cycle management.
Secure element platform APIs. These are designed to provide common access to the hardware resources of the Mifare portfolio.

"The Mifare4Mobile technology enables mobile network operators, trusted services managers and service providers to seamlessly leverage NFC-enabled mobile phone services on the existing vast Mifare infrastructures around the world," says Dr Nav Bains, the GSM Association's senior director for Mobile Money. "Increased collaboration by some of NFC's most influential stakeholders will support the creation and facilitate the integration of business for the mobile network industry related to NFC-based services."

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Oi Paggo to run NFC field trial in Brazil using Gemalto NFC add-on

Sarah Clark — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:35:00 +0000

Oi Paggo, the SMS-based mobile payments service owned by Brazilian mobile network operator Oi, is to run an NFC field trial using Gemalto's Upteq N-Flex device later this year. The trial will focus on retail payments to begin with and will then be extended to include payment for public transport as well.

Gemalto's N-Flex SIM+antenna devices enable near field communication functionality to be added to a wide range of mobile phones and are the first near field communication add-ons to conform to the Single Wire Protocol.

The devices are currently being tested by MasterCard, DBS Bank, StarHub and EZ-Link in Singapore and up to 100,000 units are expected to be used in a commercial deployment by Garanti Bank and Avea in Turkey from July.

The announcement is part of a series of expansion plans the company announced at the GSMA Mobile Money Summit this week.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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KDDI to run multiple NFC tests in Japan

Sarah Clark — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:38:47 +0000

The mobile network operator has partnered with card issuers, airlines, a cinema chain, a car manufacturer and others to run a series of tests of NFC standard technology and aims to introduce NFC services "in the near future".

KDDI: The Japanese mobile operator has big plans for NFC

Japanese mobile network operator KDDI has announced it is to run a series of trials of near field communication technology, running from next month until the end of 2010.

The company has partnered with a wide range of technology suppliers and potential NFC service providers for the tests which will see a variety of potential NFC services being provided, ranging from NFC-based credit card and other electronic payments services to airline ticketing, drivers licenses, access to public services and smart posters.

KDDI ran a technical trial of NFC technology in 2008 with financial services giant Orico and MasterCard. Now, depending on the success of this new set of trials, it aims to introduce commercial NFC services in Japan "in the near future".

KDDI's tests will be based on international standards, the operator is keen to point out, and will comply with the GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile specifications.

Partners and suppliers the mobile operator has signed up for the tests include:

Toyota, which will be testing the potential of NFC to deliver a wide range of in-car services
Orient Corporation, Credit Saison, Aiwai Card Services and MasterCard, who will be conducting tests of MasterCard's Mobile Paypass technology and other NFC payments services
Nomura Research Institute which will be examining the potential of NFC to drive forward electronic cash solutions
All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL), which will be testing a variety of NFC-based air travel services
Toho Cinemas, which will be testing NFC-based cinema ticketing
Dai Nippon Printing, which will be delivering a range of smart poster services
NTT Data, which will be testing the potential of NFC phones to store electronic drivers licenses.
T-Engine, part of the Tokyo Ubiquitous Technology Project, which will be testing the use of NFC tags in a variety of information services.
IBM, which will be building NFC into robotics products
Japan Remote Control Co, which will be conducting experiments with embedded NFC applications
Hitachi will be developing and providing a range of NFC-based public services
Gemalto is supplying TSM services and SIM cards, Denso is supply NFC reader/writer units and both Toshiba and Toppan Printing are actively involved in the project.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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GSMA video shows NFC in action at the Mobile World Congress

Sarah Clark — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:06:32 +0000

The GSM Association has published a video news report on the NFC pilot conducted at the Mobile World Congress in February.

The video shows NFC-enabled mobile phones being used to make purchases at the event and includes interviews with the key executives involved in the trial.

The video can be viewed on the GSM Association's Mobile World Live website (free registration required).

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Visa appoints senior GSMA executive to head its move to mobile

Sarah Clark — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:01:22 +0000

Visa Inc has appointed Bill Gajda as its new head of mobile. Gajda will join Visa from the GSMA, where he is currently the mobile association's chief commercial officer, responsible for strategic initiatives including mobile money, mobile money transfer, mobile advertising, strategic partnerships, mobile innovation and business development. Gajda is also president of the GSM Foundation, a position he will continue to maintain as head of mobile at Visa.

"Gajda's position at Visa is designed to further advance Visa's mobile strategy, working in collaboration with the wireless and financial services industries to bring mobile payments and related services to consumers around the globe," says the official announcement.

"Visa has made great strides in forming strategic alliances and working in collaboration with the wireless industry to bring mobile financial services to consumers in both mature and emerging markets," says Elizabeth Buse, global head of product at Visa Inc. "Bill's experience in working with mobile network operators, handset manufacturers and other leaders in wireless, combined with his track record in helping to develop successful business models, will be a significant asset as Visa's aims to commercialize mobile financial services around the globe."

Prior to joining the GSMA, Gajda was head of marketing at Ericsson, and also held key positions at Bell Canada International and Telus.

Last week, Visa teamed up with the GSMA for an NFC trial at the Mobile World Congress. The payments network also announced last week that it is to run a number of field trials using DeviceFidelity's microSD-based NFC solution.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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NFC trial begins at Mobile World Congress

Sarah Clark — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:27:06 +0000

Four hundred Samsung Star NFC handsets are being distributed to selected Mobile World Congress attendees for use at the event, which opens in Barcelona today.

Participants can use their NFC phones to pay for food and drink up to a value of €75 at over 30 merchant locations around the Congress.

GSMA, Telefonica, Visa and Samsung, with Giesecke & Devrient, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa have teamed up to deliver the service at the event.

The NFC handsets contain Telefonica SIM cards from O2 pre-loaded with €60 airtime credit as well as a La Caixa Visa Mobile Payment Application.

Participants in the trial will be able to purchase food and drink, simply by holding their Samsung NFC mobile phone against the contactless terminal at the participating merchants to pay for purchases under €10. Purchases above €10 require a passcode which the participant keys into the handset before presenting it to the terminal. The transactions are authorised online, with funds deducted from a La Caixa Visa account.

"It is a fantastic achievement to bring a full payment trial to Mobile World Congress and a testament to the hard work of the partners that this cross-industry collaboration has worked so well," says Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer at the GSMA. "Mobile operators have been requesting SIM-based NFC handsets for some time now and it's great to see such progress in this area. Now that the handsets are coming, we can expect to see a number of commercial launches of mobile SIM-based NFC services this year."

"The partners have worked successfully to bring the NFC experience to Mobile World Congress with the intention of raising awareness of this technology in anticipation of the commercial launch of these SIM based handsets in the very near future," says the official announcement. "As more of the SIM based handsets become commercially available it will help trigger global adoption and rollout of mobile NFC. Mobile NFC services will change the way people transact with their phones, everything from payments, travelling and ticketing will be transformed to ensure ease and convenience in the lifestyles of consumers around the world."

The partners' roles in the project included:

GSMA acted as the project lead, leveraging its Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative which, supported by over 50 mobile operators, has been working to make SIM-based NFC payment services a reality.
Samsung Electronics provided the NFC-enabled Samsung Star handsets and offered technical support to ensure the stability of the trial.
Telefonica provided the user interface enabling display and management of the core payment application on the handset, the O2 Wallet.
Visa provided the Visa Mobile Payment Application, a made-for-mobile contactless payment application, to La Caixa and Telefonica for use within the O2 SIM cards with €60 preloaded airtime credit. Visa coordinated activities with La Caixa, Telefonica, Ingenico and G&D to ensure that the accounts, O2 Wallet, terminals and SIM cards were Visa-compliant and mobile contactless ready.
La Caixa have issued accounts and have credited them with €75; La Caixa is also serving as the acquiring bank for the participating merchants.
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) manufactured the NFC-enabled SIM cards and personalised them with a La Caixa Visa Mobile Payment Application, allowing the Samsung NFC mobile phone to make EMV mobile payments by connecting to the SIM card through the standardised Single Wire Protocol (SWP).
Ingenico provided the participating merchants around the FIRA exhibition hall with unique colour screen contactless EFT930G wireless payment terminals, enabling participants to pay for food and drink by simply presenting their mobile phone at the terminal.
ITN International, a mobile data management company for the event marketing industry, was a founding member of the NFC experience at Mobile World Congress.

Last week, Telefonica announced it is to run an NFC trial in the Spanish resort of Sitges, 40km from Barcelona, from May this year. The trial will be run in conjunction with Visa and La Caixa. The 1,500 participants will be able to use their Samsung phones at 500 shops in Sitges and the project could expand later to Barcelona and beyond.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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NFC Forum joins up with GSMA, EMVCo and Smart Card Alliance

Sarah Clark — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:58:23 +0000

The NFC Forum has signed a series of agreements, with the GSM Association (GSMA), EMVCo and the Smart Card Alliance, designed to enable it to work more closely with each of the associations on the development of the NFC market and near field communication-based solutions.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NFC Forum and EMVCo will see the card payments standards body sharing technical information with the NFC Forum so that a certification programme can be put into place for the use of NFC devices to make payments at the point-of-sale and also for them to act as POS terminals.

The partnership with the GSMA will see the two organisations sharing information and collaborating on joint marketing activities, such as seminar sessions, white papers and presentations.

The NFC Forum and the Smart Card Alliance, meanwhile, will team up on a number of joint marketing initiatives, including educational programs for vertical markets such as retail and transport. Other programs under discussion include presentations at each other’s events and meetings, a joint event targeting the retail market in the US and the provision for regular information sharing between the NFC Forum Marketing Committee and Smart Card Alliance Contactless and Mobile Payments Council.

"The ongoing global deployment and adoption of NFC technology requires our close cooperation and interaction with all the key players in the NFC ecosystem," said Koichi Tagawa, chairman of the NFC Forum. "As the leading voices representing payment card companies, mobile operators, and the smart card industry, respectively, EMVCo, GSMA and Smart Card Alliance are valued partners in our efforts to bring the ease and power of NFC technology to mobile users around the globe."

The NFC Forum has already established liaisons with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Mobey Forum. The GSMA and EMVCo, meanwhile, are also already working with GlobalPlatform on the development of a cross-industry NFC certification process.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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GSMA, EMVCo and GlobalPlatform to develop cross-industry NFC certification process

Sarah Clark — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:14:28 +0000

The three associations will design a model which will allow certification processes to be put in place to ensure that any NFC payments application will work on any platform.

WORKING TOGETHER: GlobalPlatform will lead the joint effort to develop a certification process

Card payments standards body EMVCo and telecoms association the GSM Association have agreed to work with GlobalPlatform to define a common certification process that will enable mobile network operators and the payments industry to develop cross-industry certification schemes for NFC services.

"When fully developed and operational, these schemes will work together to ensure that any certified payment application will work with any certified UICC [SIM] platform, reducing the incidence of certification failures when new application/platform combinations are subsequently added for testing," say the associations. "The result will be significantly reduced testing and development costs and a faster time to market. Additionally, no further certifications will be necessary when loading applications with less stringent security requirements onto new UICC platforms."

GlobalPlatform has been chosen to lead the initiative due to its cross-industry technical expertise. "We believe that the creation of the model will increase overall market confidence," says Gil Bernabeu, GlobalPlatform's technical director. "Although industry bodies such as MNOs and payment organisations will remain responsible for certifying technology compliance, GlobalPlatform hopes that adherence to the model and relevant security configurations will become commonplace."

The agreement has been welcomed by a number of trade associations and standards bodies.

"This initiative fully supports the objectives of the EPC as regards the creation of a standardised and interoperable environment for mobile payments," says Dag-Inge Flatraaker, chair of the European Payments Council's M-Channel Group. "The composite certification will improve the timeliness of the approval process and ease related procedures for banks and payments service suppliers. This initiative allows the banks to manage and control the security of their applications when operating in the mobile payments environment."

"Dissociating the certification of the platform from the application is a great initiative to not only accelerate the development and deployment of applications, especially in multi-issuer environments, but also avoid technology fragmentation," added Michel Canitrot, chairman of the board for the SIMalliance. "It is a guarantee for the issuer that, whatever the platform, the application will be deployed seamlessly and securely. NFC is typically a use case where this guarantee is essential for mass market deployment."

"A common type approval approach for contactless mobile payment UICCs will avoid redundancy and conflicting efforts between different parties with approval authorities and interests," explains Brian Byrne, chairman of the EMVCo board of managers. "We see this as a natural extension of EMVCo's commitment to provide a globally interoperable acceptance environment for secure payments. Our participation is aimed at ensuring the resulting type approval process is not only cost-effective and efficient, but that it is secure and flexible enough to meet the requirements of the payment and telecommunications industries."

"Developing a UICC certification model for NFC services that is cost effective and results in a short time to market will be critical for the commercial rollout of mobile NFC services worldwide", concluded Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer of the GSMA.

GlobalPlatform has also working on a compliance programme for NFC SIMs. Test suites, which can be used to develop testing tools that ensure NFC SIMs meet GlobalPlatform standards, are being released to GlobalPlatform members now.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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GlobalPlatform launches transportation task force

Sarah Clark — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:44:15 +0000

GlobalPlatform has set up a Transportation Task Force with the aim of actively contributing to the evolution of smart ticketing solutions. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a standard travel media that will offer multi transportation network ticketing solutions which provide a variety of additional services to passengers, including everything from bike rental to banking services.

The task force is being led by Michel Barjansky, Innovation Manager at the Engineering Department of French transportation organisation RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP).

The Transportation Task Force will work with GlobalPlatform's existing Card, Device and Systems committees to modify and advance its existing specifications in order to address specific requirements highlighted by the transportation industry. In particular, it will work closely with GlobalPlatform’s Mobile Task Force which has established links with StoLPaN, ETSI, the GSM Association, European Payments Council, Association Européenne Payez Mobile, Ulysse and the Mobey Forum.

The task force will begin by publishing a white paper that will explain how GlobalPlatform specifications enable the usage of a third party media, such as a mobile phone, for transactions, for enhancing mobility by facilitating the co-existence of different local transport applications on the same media and allowing transport operators to enrich services by offering new applications throughout the lifecycle of the solution.

“The transportation industry has identified the value smart card technology can bring to their networks such as efficient e-ticketing distribution," says Barjansky. "As a secure multi-application smart card specification provider representing payment systems, the telecoms community and transport operators, we believe it is important that GlobalPlatform contributes to this evolving landscape from an independent, cross-industry perspective. By participating now, GlobalPlatform can support the convergence of the transportation market with other sectors to create exciting and convenient services to passengers.”

“GlobalPlatform has an established, secure and flexible smart card infrastructure that transcends markets and supports multi-application, multi-actor and multi-business model implementations," added Gil Bernabeu, GlobalPlatform’s Technical Director and Technical Advisor for the Standardization and Technology Department at Gemalto. "This means that a transport operator deploying an e-ticketing solution today can benefit from our experience and knowledge by using GlobalPlatform’s latest and most sophisticated technology, which will save significant time to market as well as research and development costs.”

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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What kind of Trusted Service Managers is NFC likely to need — and how many will there be?

Dave Birch — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:30:18 +0000

GUEST COMMENT: We're unlikely to end up with a single TSM per country, or per region, or per operator — which isn't what many people imagined when the TSM model became current, writes Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion.

DAVE BIRCH: 'Different kinds of services require different kinds of TSMs'

Central to the deployment of mobile proximity payments in the mass market is the well-understood problem of the connection between (and control over) applications and service providers. "How does a bank's payment application get into a consumer's phone?", to put it simply.

Well, the GSM Association set out a "standard" architecture that has a box called a Trusted Service Manager (TSM) to take care of that problem. The service provider tells the TSM to send a bank card to your phone and the TSM makes it happen. It's actually fairly straightforward to do this.

DnB NOR and Telenor have been working together on NFC since April 2008 when they formed TSM Nordic, a joint venture charged with creating a trusted service manager to handle the introduction of NFC in the Nordic region.
[From DnB NOR and Telenor begin NFC field trial in Oslo • Near Field Communications World]

Now, the bank or the operator could load the application themselves, so why would they introduce the extra box? Well, we all understand the basic problem, as clearly stated here by Jonathon Gould:

As additional service providers join the ecosystem — such as loyalty operators, ticket issuers and pre-paid cards providers (e.g. transit) — then the possible number of TSMs explodes, increasing the level of complexity accordingly.
[From The Pros and Cons of the TSM Model in relation to Development of NFC • Asia Pacific Smart Card Association]

Actually, I think the problem may be a little more complex still. But let's look back at the simple case first. A single bank (let's say Citi) does a deal with a single operator (let's say M1 in Singapore) and they need a "TSM" to get applications to the phones. In that case, what has turned into almost a default option is that the personalisation service provider connects their system to the operator OTA:

Gemalto is entrusted with the management and preparation of sensitive user information from Citibank and to perform secure Visa personalization services on the phones enabling subscribers to gain access to the Visa payWave service on Singapore M1's mobile network.
[From Finextra: Citi selects Gemalto personalisation services for Singapore m-payments trial]

Outside the case of banking, where mass personalisation supply chains, certified to a high level of security, already exist, the emerging supply chain may well be different: It doesn't have to follow the bank model, where multiple banks outsource to bureaus and some banks have their own systems in house.

This is because different kinds of services require different kinds of TSMs. The TSM capable of delivering military ID applications into USB tokens may have very different security, reliability and flexibility requirements than a TSM capable of delivering a sports ticketing application or a corporate login application.

If you are a transit operator, you may find that sharing a TSM with other transit operators makes sense, whereas sharing a TSM with banks doesn't. Therefore, we're unlikely to end up with a single TSM per country, or per region, or per MNO, but we may end up with one TSM per sector outside banking and one TSM per bank/operator service inside banking, which isn't what many people imagined when the TSM model became current. A single TSM just doesn't look right.

There's a pressure in the opposite direction, which serves to stop us from having a thousand TSMs. As has been discussed before (by Consult Hyperion and others), there is a substantial economic advantage to sharing infrastructure and interoperability means significant growth in services. Therefore, in a market such as the UK, one might expect to find four or five TSMs in time. That seems reasonable, so let's move on to another question. Who will run them?

I argue that the MNO should take over the role of the TSM. The MNO already has a Call Center which can be used for the new service support. With the Secure Element (SE) on the MNO SIMs, (which looks like the most viable option to deploy NFC), the operator already carries out essential activities such as provisioning, SIM blocking, etc.
[From ForumOxford: NFC Trusted Services Manager]

There's a logic to this, although I have to say that many MNOs seem unenthusiastic about the opportunity. They don't personalise the SIMs themselves, so to build this kind of facility would cost them a lot of money and they'd have to comply with all sorts of security requirements. If an MNO outsources to the same (for example) G&D centre as its bank partner does, then G&D will become the TSM in practice. As the always thoughtful Dean Bubley notes in the ForumOxford piece, the business model for the operator depends substantially on reduced churn, but banks (and their customers) won't want to be locked into to a particular operator unless the operator pays heavily for the privilege.

It's different in the markets that we look at as being the most advanced mobile transaction (eg payments, ticketing, loyalty, coupons) markets, Japan and Korea. In these markets, there is no concept of a TSM because everything goes through the operator. While there may be arguments about the long term efficiency, innovation and operation associated with this architecture, there's no denying it's an effective way to get markets off of the ground. In the Japanese market (where Docomo recently announced their target of moving from around 9 million to around 11 million DCMX customers this year), the delivery of (for example) train tickets to the contactless interface in the handset is routine.

Our experiences have been very varied indeed. Having studied the problem and potential solutions for both public and private sector organisations, and having implemented live payment applications — both open (that is, Visa/MC/Amex) and closed-loop — in a variety of pilots, and having helped customers on multiple continents to develop architectures for mass-market services, I'm pretty sure that the real world of TSMs and "TSM equivalents" (ie collections of system components that deliver the same functionality as a TSM) is more complicated that the original GSMA model. The most likely architecture will combine sector-specific TSMs (eg, in transport) with a small number of operator-centric TSM+OTA operations and perhaps a larger number of service-provider specific Application Management+TSM operations.

We've studied a few of these models and the different pressures around them for different customers. Some examples are well-studied: France is a case in point with the payment-oriented Pegasus, transit-oriented Ulysses and retailer-oriented Ergosum multi-operator, multi-provider projects showing how national organisations might infuence technical architecture. I think another interesting, if embryonic, case study is Spain, where there is a bank-oriented pilot led by the processor (Sermepa) co-ordinating the banks "TSMs" (by which I mean existing bureaus plus OTA interfaces).

Mobile operator Telefónica Espana has launched a "comprehensive pilot project" to test out the use of NFC to deliver payment services through mobile phones. For the pilot it has teamed up with Sermepa, the technical arm of ServiRed, the transaction processing service owned by 102 Spanish card issuers who, between them, have nearly 40 million cards in circulation and operate over 32,000 ATMs.
[From Telefónica and Sermepa launch NFC pilot in Spain • Near Field Communications World]

I understand there there is to be another transit-oriented pilot where the transport companies will co-operate on a single shared TSM that connects to MNO OTAs. There has already been a single company pilot running in Malaga using Orange handsets. It will be instructional to see how these different models evolve.

• David GW Birch is a director of Consult Hyperion, a UK-based IT consultancy that has extensive experience advising private and public sector customers in Europe, America and Asia on NFC business models and strategy. You can keep in touch with his latest thinking via the Digital Money Forum blog.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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